This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 241 240. The Future of Refugees (4K)

"Tree spirit!" Vera became slightly wary upon seeing the approaching creature.

The reason it was only "slightly" is because the three of them lived on the sixth floor and naturally knew that ever since the tree spirit and Puji became symbiotic, it would often come out of the secret forest, but like Puji, it would not attack on its own initiative.

But this time, they walked towards the group with a clear purpose, and Vera's fingers still instinctively tightened around the hilt of her knife.

Unexpectedly, Sirius took the initiative to greet her, his emerald green eyes filled with surprise.

"There are tree spirits here too? And..." He examined the tree spirits' wrinkled bark closely, "they're covered in mushrooms, not the usual moss!"

One of the taller tree spirits stretched out its gnarled branches and gently wrapped them around Sirius's wrist, as if testing him.

Vera's heart skipped a beat: "Hey, are you alright?"

“It’s alright, it’s alright,” Xilian closed his eyes, his long eyelashes trembling slightly, and a faint emerald green halo seemed to emanate from his body. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at the three tense people. “They are asking for help.”

"Druids can communicate with monsters like this?" Felix asked incredulously.

“It’s a small talent bestowed upon us by our elven bloodline,” Sirion explained. “When we open our hearts to each other, we can barely sense simple emotional fluctuations.”

The tree spirits made contact and slowly turned around. Xilian followed without hesitation: "Want to come and take a look?"

"Could it be a trap?" Vera muttered to herself, but she had already followed. She couldn't let Sirion go alone.

Sirian said, "I didn't sense any malice, but it's never a bad thing to be cautious. Let's stay alert on the road!"

Led by the tree spirit, they traversed the cursed and desolate wasteland and arrived at the other side of the sixth level, where the survivors had made their way.

With the tree spirit leading the way, the group traversed a secluded path hidden by dense vegetation and arrived at their destination.

Standing at the entrance to the secret forest, Vera looked around at the tree roots and the mycelium attached to them, and couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement: "I had heard that there was a secret forest where tree spirits lived deep in the sixth level, but I didn't expect the entrance to be hidden so deep!"

They hadn't ventured far into the secret forest when the tree spirits stopped, pointing ahead with their branches. Without further ado, everyone immediately understood the reason for their urgency—a few demonic trees on the verge of death.

Xilian frowned slightly, his gaze sweeping over the roots covered in damp mud and the traces of freshly turned soil around them. Then, thinking of the scorched earth outside, he had a rough guess in his mind.

Siriam muttered under his breath, "The migration method was too brutal..."

He said no more, gently placing his hands on the trunk of the diseased demon tree, chanting incantations, and the emerald light emanating from his palms slowly flowed into the tree's veins.

Where the light reaches, the grayish color of the tree bark seems to have been washed away, faintly revealing the vitality hidden within.

Seeing that it was effective, Sirius smiled.

Vera, standing to the side, had a strange expression on his face. He shifted his gaze from the revitalized demon tree to the other demon trees in the secret forest, and then looked through the shadows to see the vast scorched ruins outside.

Has the amount of work increased again?
-
Everything that happened on the sixth floor was naturally within the perception of a certain green mushroom.

Lin Jun's biggest takeaway is: Natural magic is truly a treasure!

I'm using it to accelerate ripening and heal, and I'm seeing the effects. It seems to have a special affinity for the mushroom system, and it feels more suitable for me than magic of other attributes!

However, I have never seen any human with natural magic skills. I wonder if this is exclusive to elves. I'll ask Aidin later.

To use nature magic, one needs to either break down the skill or learn the corresponding spell.

However, it seems that all the nature magic used by this elf is related to chanting!

Using voice chat...?
Moreover, the chanting was in Elvish, which I couldn't understand at all, so I had to start learning a new language again.
Lin Jun noted this down in her "to-do list" deep within her consciousness. Besides this natural magic, abyssal magic was also something she wanted to explore.

Unfortunately, since that fleeting glimpse at the port, I have never encountered a user of it again, suggesting it is a very obscure form of magic.

Lin Jun never stopped researching magic. She had already read through the dozen or so magic books and learned almost all the spells recorded in them.

These were all low-level spells, not particularly difficult, but because he had learned a wide variety of spells, apart from the most familiar one, the Swamp Spell, which barely met the passing grade for an adventurer mage's rapid spellcasting, Lin Jun had only dabbled in most of the other spells, remaining at the level of "knowing how to cast" them.

However, Lin Jun is different from mages. If a mage is slow to cast spells, he will be killed instantly. At most, Lin Jun can just summon a magic potion to use.

……

Several days have passed in the blink of an eye, and now Vera and his group have to run between the two places every day.

Each day begins with tending to the demonic trees, followed by journeys to the desolate lands ravaged by the curse, gradually awakening the dormant life force of the earth. All of this work can only be done by the elf Sirion alone.

Feiyin's speed-up spells could still be useful when traveling, while Vera and Feiling were completely useless and became idle.

The two felt bad watching the elves busy themselves. So, they took the initiative to take on the "logistics" work, hunting tusked boars with firm meat in the still intact areas of the sixth floor, or collecting honey secreted by certain plant-type monsters to supplement everyone's meals.

The group is currently living safely in the Tree Spirit's Secret Forest. Food is provided by Puji, and there is plenty of mushroom soup, but if they want to eat something different, they will have to rely on themselves.

While the four were working down below, the situation on the ground gradually changed.

……

On Far's side, the anticipated collapse of the dungeon has yet to occur, but the heavy pressure of reality is mounting. Left with no other choice, he can only start organizing people to return to the dungeon entrance, observing the situation in the dungeon while collecting mushrooms.

However, when the guild's gathering team finally arrived at their destination, they were completely dumbfounded by what they saw—the mushrooms were in extremely high demand!
The news that the first group of daring adventurers made a fortune selling mushrooms in the city spread like wildfire, instantly igniting the hearts of everyone around who longed for wealth.

So what if the underground city is on the verge of collapse and could crumble at any moment?

I don't go into the dungeon myself, I just gather mushrooms on the outskirts. As soon as there's any sign of trouble, I'll run away!

Besides, you might not be the unlucky one. Maybe you'll be picking mushrooms and returning home with a full load, only for the mushrooms to collapse right afterward?
The risk of the dungeon collapsing is invisible and intangible, but the gold coins earned from gathering mushrooms are real and tangible!

Driven by the fervor of "fortune favors the bold," more and more adventurers, like sharks smelling blood, flocked to join this mushroom gold rush.

Adventurers weren't the only ones; in these difficult times of food shortages everywhere, refugees were also drawn to this risk-free business. They brought their families, carrying tattered baskets and reusable hampers, and joined in as well.

So when the guild's gathering team arrived, they found a large number of speculators and fungal carpets that had been visited again and again.

Not to mention mature mushrooms, even the tiny mushrooms that have just sprouted and are no bigger than a finger have already been picked off by sharp-eyed and quick-handed people and stuffed into their own containers.

While sending more guild members to join the mushroom battle, they also reluctantly took out some materials stockpiled in the guild warehouse to barter for mushrooms from other guilds.

Two months ago, this kind of deal would have been practically a freebie, but now, Far could only keep a deadpan expression and let Mirabelle go and make the exchange!

For adventurers, this kind of exchange doesn't make them earn more, but it saves them time transporting goods to more distant cities, so most of them are still happy to do it.

But this isn't a long-term solution. Inside the guild's tent, Far solemnly handed a sealed envelope to Aidin: "Aidin, I'm sorry, but this time... I'll have to trouble you to be the persuader."

Aiden took the envelope; he knew what was inside, as Far had already told him.

Food is scarce everywhere, and a war has broken out with the demons. All supplies are being prioritized for the army. Under these circumstances, even if the nobles and lords of the surrounding cities have stored grain, it is almost impossible for them to open their granaries to provide relief to the refugees.

The mushrooms near the dungeon are the last hope for these refugees.

But Far dared not release the refugees directly to pick mushrooms; if he did, this place would surely become a hell of the survival of the fittest.

Moreover, even now, the trampling by these adventurers and a small number of refugees has already destroyed the fungal carpet in some areas, resulting in a significant reduction in production.

Fal wanted to take charge, but the guild lacked enforcement power in many matters.

Therefore, he needs the help of the St. Clair family to gain management rights!
Although the dungeon does not belong to the Duke's family, the town of Silent Wind, the land surrounding the entrance, is undoubtedly the Duke's family's fiefdom.

According to the law, all the produce of this land theoretically belongs to the Duke.

Of course, that's what they say, but in peacetime no nobleman would be foolish enough to use this hated right, as it would be a thankless and exhausting task.

But these are clearly special times. Not to mention, the Duke's daughter, Miss Inanna, also possesses the King of Puji. With these two factors combined, claiming that this fungal carpet and its products belong to the Duke's family is justifiable in every sense.

If he can persuade Miss Inanna to support him, and thus gain the Duke's approval to grant him the power to manage the collection and distribution of mushroom carpets on behalf of the Duke's palace, the refugees' food crisis can be temporarily relieved.

However, he remembered that Miss Inanna seemed to dislike him, and Aidin, with his friendship with Miss Inanna and his quick wit, became the only persuader in Far's eyes who could possibly accomplish this difficult task.

Far apologized to Edin because it was no easy task.

Success would only mean saving a group of insignificant refugees, but cutting off others' source of income would inevitably incur the resentment of adventurers, and that resentment would likely be split 50/50 between the Duke's family and himself, the branch leader.

To put it bluntly, in the context of food shortages, reducing the "redundant" low-value population is a cold but effective solution.

Farr knew he was putting Aidin in a difficult position by acting as a lobbyist for a goal that offered almost no real benefit.

He only hoped that Edin could persuade the duke's daughter through their friendship, and then have Miss Inanna obtain his father's consent.

Holding the letter, Aidin looked at Far and nodded.

This chairman has done everything he could for these refugees who are not related to him.

Aidin asked himself if he was the kind of person who would lend a helping hand to someone in distress on the road, but he would never put himself under immense pressure for the sake of a stranger's survival, like Far did.

If he were in charge of the guild, he would probably have accepted the reality of being "unable to bear the burden" and pushed the refugee problem onto the lord or let it fend for itself.

Although he couldn't do that himself, it didn't stop him from respecting the young, white-haired president in front of him. No one doesn't want more "good people" around them.

As for the letter...

Aidin mounted his horse and rode away from the noisy and chaotic camp. But instead of heading straight for the Duke's manor, he gently tugged on the reins, turned his horse around, and rode towards an area where sparse mycelium had already begun to spread.

I should report to my boss first...

……

Ok?
The information that came to her mind made Lin Jun pause slightly.

Managing the mushroom carpet? Rescuing refugees?

After receiving Aidin's message, he did not stop him, but only let him continue to deliver the message and complete Far's mission.

Lin Jun herself had no objection to the idea of ​​letting the Adventurers' Guild manage the mushrooms produced by the creep.

Given such a large-scale food shortage, the outward expansion of the fungal carpet is an inevitable trend, and it will spread regardless of whether anyone manages it.

However, rescuing the refugees was exactly what Lin Jun wanted.

The reason for this expectation is, of course, mainly because the green mushroom is kind-hearted.

As for the fact that most refugees are relatively unsophisticated and have more "potential for transformation" and "future value" than seasoned adventurers, those are just minor, insignificant considerations.

Since both sides unexpectedly agreed on the goal of "rescuing people," Lin Jun didn't mind going along with it and lending a hand, even though the guild leader, Fal, had previously had a minor disagreement with her...

As her thoughts raced, Lin Jun's gaze fell upon the knight Puji in the Duke's mansion.

Sure enough, Inanna was still the same as always, carrying Puji with her wherever she went.

At this moment, the Duke's mansion's luxurious and spacious bathhouse was filled with steam.

Inanna was sitting on the smooth edge of the pool, holding a muddy little creature tightly in her arms. She was carefully wiping its round body with a soft sponge, trying to restore it to its original whiteness.

To her left sat several puppies that had been thoroughly cleaned, while to her right were several other little creatures, equally covered in dirt, lined up under her direction, waiting for the Duke's daughter's scrubbing service.

Today she took the Pujis hunting in her own woodland again, so when they came back, they were all covered in mud.

None of these Pojis, except for the Knight, have [Aquatic Adaptation]. The first time, one of them even died from being submerged (although it was later revived). Now, Inanna can only clean them one by one like this.

Logically, this kind of work could have been left to a maid, but Inanna enjoyed it immensely.

Suddenly, Inanna stopped wiping herself abruptly. She tilted her head in confusion, her wet hair clinging to her cheek.

Just now... I think I heard the boss calling me?!
"Inanna!" Lin Jun repeated during the connection.

"It really is Boss!" The girl's face instantly lit up with a surprised smile, but then she asked in confusion, "Boss, how did you contact me? There are clearly no mycelium around here!" She subconsciously looked around the steamy bathroom.

“I’m speaking to you through Knight Puji. But let’s not get back to that. Do you remember Aidin? He’s coming soon…” Lin Jun explained briefly before getting to the point, describing the refugee situation and Aidin’s upcoming visit.

However, Inanna's attention had clearly wandered completely, and she didn't hear a single word Lin Jun said afterward.

At this moment, she stared blankly at the knight on her lap, her mind filled with thoughts like: "Since the boss can talk to me through the knight... why didn't he say a word for so long before? Huh?"

　I might be working on some compilations soon, please forgive me.

　　There's one more chapter I'm working on. I might not finish it today. I'll either post it tonight or together with tomorrow's chapter.

　　(Making 10,000 a day is still too difficult)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)